However, he understands that drug dealing earns much more money than many jobs that are available to him, and that he needs that extra money for different reasons to keep going. Tupac says, “‘I made a G today,’ but you made it in a sleazy way, Sellin’ crack to the kids, ‘I gotta get paid!’ – well hey, but that’s the way it is,” He’s trying to explain to the drug dealer that he is damaging kid’s lives by selling them drugs and profiting off of it and that he doesn’t agree with what he does. He recognises that most people don’t commit crimes because they want to, but because they need to so they can survive. Huey’s ideas and motives were actually different to Tupac’s though, as Huey wanted a completely seperate community for Black people but Tupac thought, “We can never go nowhere unless we share with each other,”.Īn interesting idea I found in the text is how Tupac doesn’t always describe crime in a negative way even though he believed it is a negative thing. Newton, who was the leader of the Black Panther Party by saying, “‘It’s time to fight back,’ that’s what Huey said, Two shots in the dark now Huey’s dead,” Tupac’s parents were actually active members of the Black Panthers so he has connections to the leader, who was shot and killed by a drug dealer when he was 47. Tupac says, “First ship ‘em dope and let ‘em deal to brothers, Give ‘em guns, step, back watch ‘em kill each other,” which is a reference to what some people believed to be government intentionally distributing drugs to the Black community. This was considerably worse is mostly Black neighbourhoods but because of many stigmas and blame put on these communities, it was ignored. The topic that is often repeated throughout the song is the ‘crack epidemic’ of the 80s and 90s. One of the writer’s messages is that racism is pointless and we should all come together and instead hate evil things rather than the colour of someone’s skin. The song touches on many topics including drug epidemics, the Black Panthers, discrimination and problems with money. Being a very popular rapper allowed Tupac to speak for his community and this song is his statement on the problems his community faced. The words Pac spits not only highlight the direction his star was heading in – socially conscious and ready to fight – but the leaps and bounds we still have to take.įollowing the inauguration of Barack Obama, the world languished in the joy of singing the famous line “we ain’t ready to see a Black President” but now, in the post-Trump world, it still feels like there is a long way to go before the need for this song diminishes.‘Changes’ by Tupac is a thought provoking song about the racism and discrimination people living in lower income neighbourhoods and minorities, especially in the 90s. Such was the power of Tupac that a single like ‘Changes’ can still affect the world he left behind. not only does Pac refer to the stagnated progress of the hood, but the producer reflects on the immovable death of the artist himself. It’s the sentiment of finality that makes this song feel even more poetic. The track effectively borrows from Bruce Hornsby’s 1986 song ‘The Way It Is’, which allows Pac’s ideals and peaceful protest to really power through. It means two things: firstly, that the producer of the song was truly gifted and, secondly, that Pac had rhymes for days. However, it wasn’t a song necessarily intended to be heard as it was, in fact, the verses were largely cobbled together from pieces of recordings Pac had previously done. The song also did a lot for bridging the gap between gangster rap and pop culture. The final bars eerily predict his violent demise: “And as long as I stay black / I gotta stay strapped / And I never get to lay back / ‘Cause I always got to worry ’bout the payback / Some buck that I roughed up way back / Coming back after all these years / ”Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!” / That’s the way it is.”Ĭonsidering the song was released following his death, it makes the lyrics feel extra poignant. Pac is angry and frustrated at the lack of support and changes in the community.
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